The problems facing VTA’s light rail are due to their own choices. They choose to go through downtown on surface level, thereby causing a very slow ride, and lots of train vs. car or pedestrian accidents. It should have been underground for a few miles, not at surface level. This was done to save money, but in the long run, it didn’t.

Then, VTA went along with the airport and decided not to have light rail run to the airport. Since the airport gets a lot of funding through extremely high parking fees, they have fought any sort of direct mass transit solution. Note that even when BART comes to downtown, it will avoid the airport. We need to stop pandering to the airport’s addiction to parking fees.

VTA has been encouraged to make these poor choices due to the fact that they don’t seem to care about any sort of bottom line, they just ask for another tax increase. VTA light rail is a poorly designed and run system that is a huge burden on the taxpayers.

Dan Wagner

San Jose

NRA to shield kids from liberal educators

Of course the NRA wants to post armed guards in schools. They want to protect the children from dangerous liberal educators teaching useless things like science and logic.

Thomas Tracy

Campbell

‘Well-regulated militia’ meant ‘well-trained’

A recent letter understood the terminology “well-regulated militia” to mean requiring a high degree of legal regulation.

However, those knowledgeable in language scholarship are aware that many words uttered in one era have an original meaning different from that applied in subsequent times. The Bible is a good example of this.

The meaning of the phrase “well-regulated militia” utilized in the 1770s-1780s’ discussion and the Second Amendment were clearly understood to mean “well-trained.”

Charles Drucker

Col., AUS (Ret.) Pacifica

Recent tragic affairs should unite us

Christmas Eve, my family and I watched the movie “White Christmas” for the umpteenth time. It never fails to bring a tear to my eye, not for the schmaltzy, romantic vision of snowfall at Christmastime but the ideas of sacrifice, camaraderie, and sharing embodied in the World War II soldiers and their support of their wartime leader. It is all the more poignant this year, even heartbreaking, when these ideals are compared against the reality of 21st-century America.

Sacrifice? We can’t give up money to support our struggling education, health care, and public infrastructure systems that are so fundamental to a successful society. We can’t give up the insane notion of “all guns, all the time” foisted on us by the NRA, the gun lobby, and conservative interpreters of the Constitution (the word “regulated’ is included in the Second Amendment, by the way).

If we can’t unite around the tragic events of the recent holiday season and the looming crisis in our financial affairs, I shudder to think what will unite us.

Eugene Ely

San Jose

Arm some teachers to confound shooters

Richard Stoken raises a good point in his letter (Letters, Dec 28). Putting police in every school would be hugely expensive and, frankly, an imposition on our liberty. A better suggestion is a policy where some administrators or teachers volunteer to be trained in the proper use of handguns. Perhaps there are retired police or firemen already working in schools that are familiar with the responsibilities that go along with handling firearms. These administrators or teachers can be provided with guns and concealed lockboxes set up like fire alarms to sound off if they are opened. Quarterly drills can ensure all the components of the system are in place and working.

The best part of this type of program is that not all teachers are armed — they don’t need to be. Not all schools will have armed volunteers — not all schools need armed volunteers. What needs to happen is that enough schools are armed so a potential shooter doesn’t know which targets may shoot back. Remember, these spree-murderers choose gun-free zones for their targets.

David W. Goza

San Jose

Mental health services cheaper than jail

I am currently a Santa Clara County Main Jail inmate. It costs California taxpayers $116 a day to house me here. Before this, I was involved in mental health services with Community Solutions of San Jose, which gave me mental health counseling, alcohol recovery treatment and introduced me to psych medication for my post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. All this for a fraction of the cost of jail. When released, I will again be involved with Community Solutions and continue my upward climb instead of a downward spiral that costs California taxpayers 10 times more. My goal is to be a productive, taxpaying member of our community rather than a jail inmate who is a burden to society. It saves lives, too.

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